Diocese campaign tour

As I've mentioned we are traveling around Rwanda assessing our savings programs to date - more stories are forthcoming. Malu and the core team trained for a year, so before we train some more, we're seeing what has happened.

We are encouraging groups and leaders, gathering stories of success and challenges, casting vision and receiving advice, and laying the groundwork for a wholesale group-by-group reporting scheme to get the hard numbers on the economic development.

Below is a brief schedule of the diocese campaign tour. Each week, we spend Tuesday through Friday on the road hitting dioceses in pairs.

Byumba, Jan 22-23
Shyogwe, Jan 27-28
Butare, Jan 29-30
Kigeme, Feb 3-4
Cyangugu, Feb 5-6
Kibungo, Feb 10-11
Gahini, Feb 12-13
Shyira, Feb 17-18
Kigali, TBD
Kivu, TBD

If you want to visualize where we are, and I'm sure this is particularly helpful for my wife who is wondering where I am right now, then this map gives all of the Anglican diocese locations with an added bonus of emphasis placed on dioceses with the most churches. Byumba has 327, Cyangugu has 76.



(Thanks to Gary Hobday for reminding me how much I love maps.)

Bethanie

A Presbyterian guest house in Kibuye on Lake Kivu, Centre Bethanie is described by Will Kendall as the most beautiful place in the world. I consider it one of the best I've known. I've never seen a place like this, but imagine that it must be what Hawaii looks like, maybe.

Malu was planning a retreat to write up her experiences with the savings-led program here in Rwanda, so Danielle and I were able to tag along. We drove here on Sunday, and we have been doing some reading and planning in order to prepare an agenda over the next few months, and Malu has continued to debrief us on our savings operations.

During our spare time, we look out over the lake and feast on fried bananas and sambaza (minnow-size fish that I eat like popcorn shrimp), which goes nicely with a cheap local beer, Primus. We took a boat tour of the nearby islands, which included some fancy birds and a hilly island with grazing cows. The cowboys swim their cows out to these islands to graze!

Danielle and I have been able to debrief about our new home and soak in some of our new experiences. We have had a whirlwind weekend and no Internet access, so the following blog entries are a barrage of writings accumulated.

Details: moving to Rwanda

UPDATED: November 13, from Rwanda

72 hr, 27 min = Total time from Fisher House [Lancaster] to Mercy House [Kigali]
34 hr, 5 min = Total time from Philadelphia to Kigali
17 hr, 15 min = Total time flying

We left with 8 bags. I know how Jon & Kate Plus 8 feel when they go to Disney World, you’re always counting. 4 checked bags, 4 carry-ons, 3 laptops, too many books. Everything was the right size and the right weight except the one. One bag was barely overweight (and oversized, but they fixed that by ripping of the handle somewhere in a back room). I suggested to both United and Kenya Airways that we were serving a nonprofit organization helping the poor in Rwanda – each generously offered our overweight and oversized baggage transportato gratis (no extra charge).

From Lancaster, PA to Kigali, Rwanda: here are the details. So far, these are just flights and times, but I'll go back and insert the actual details of traveling for three days as we move to Africa. I'm including real time departures and arrivals, travel time, and costs for two.

Day 1: Trains
Sunday, 9 November 2008

Amtrak: Keystone 664
10:03 am Lancaster
11:10 am Philadelphia (30th St)
1 hr, 7 min
$36

Septa R1 regional rail
11:34 am 30th Street Station
11:50 am Philadelphia Int'l Airport - Terminal B
0 hr, 16 min
$0 ($12 regularly, but we road at the grace of one sympathetic – yet brusque – ticket puncher)

Philadelphia Airport Marriott - connected to Terminal B by sky bridge.
$76.12 ($60 bid on Priceline, 3 stars, regularly $199)

Sunday night update: We caught the Eagles-Giants game at the Linc (a surprise for Danielle). We enjoyed a pre-game concert with ribs and a turkey leg. We also had the great pleasure of meeting three genuine Philadelphia fans (one with a classic Eagles knit cap) Jeff, Ed, and Dr. Rob. (I say Dr. Rob to distinguish him from myself; I usually go by Dr. Bob.) We had the subtle displeasure to experience the spitting of an Eagles fan upon a Giants fan. It is not as fun as it sounds when you’re in between the two. I almost saw two Eagles fans fight each other; it’s known to be a rough crowd. Our experience with Jeff, Ed, and Dr. Rob, however, was redeeming enough to believe in Philadelphia still.

Another Sunday night update: For Tech fans … I met Bill Weaver at the Marriott. You may know him as some very successful CEO, but I have the personal privilege to know him as one of the 1990 Yellow Jacket college football national champions. I thanked him for his service.

Day 2: Planes, part I
Monday, 10 November 2008

United 7218
6:50 pm Philadelphia (PHL)
7:59 pm Washington (IAD)
1 hr, 9 min

United 924
10:04 pm Washington (IAD)
--overnight--
10:15 am London (LHR)
7 hr, 11 min

Day 3: Planes, part II
Tuesday, 11 November 2008

Kenya Airways 101
7:00 pm London (LHR)
--overnight--
6:30 am Nairobi (NBO)
7 hr, 30 min

Day 4: Planes, part III
Wednesday, 12 November 2008

Kenya Airways 472
12:30 pm Nairobi (NBO)
12:55 pm Kigali (KGL) 1 hr, 25 min

Total approximate airfare cost, roundtrip (returning June 2009)
$1,865

As we finish our travel, I'll update all of the travel times and maybe some more costs of travel. Also, you cannot move to Rwanda without vaccinations and drugs: typhoid, yellow fever, polio, meningitis, (hepatitis we’ve had already), and we’re taking malaria prophylaxis – $1,125
not to mention a serious checklists of what to remember before you leave the country. I should have friends help out with this one . . . Bentleys? McDades? Strykers?

Details: moving to Lancaster

770 miles, 5 days of U-Haul

[Atlanta, GA] We rented the U-Haul on Thursday, October 23. Art helped a ton with our first day of loading, and Mark Fifield put his knee through some cheap piece of furniture, which also helped a ton because we hated it.

Friday, October 24, we kept loading the U-Haul. 14' truck, interior space of 11'4" x 7'5" x 6'9" (LxWxH) and a mom's attic. This space is the size of our worldly possessions because it all fit exactly. Friday consisted of jigsaw puzzle packing of assorted boxes and bikes and chairs; running to the Post Office to get a book that I ordered and they wouldn't find for me and will now be lost in space; running around to find somewhere to dump extra trash (thank you Washington Mutual); and more packing. Finally we loaded the car onto the tow dolly and set out. The time? 7:20 PM. My goal, my life aspiration at this point: make it to Gwinnett before we stop and get a hotel room.

Did I mention it was raining all day? It rained all night, too, as we drove through the dark to Statesville, NC. The Holiday Inn was so hospitable, especially after their unnamed neighbor hotel tried to sell me an expensive jacuzzi room at 1:00 AM. That lady had a bad attitude.

Saturday, we leisurely advance our U-Haul from Statesville to York. After gassing the truck in the rain, being denied a bathroom, and almost getting hit by a speeding pickup truck burning rubber in the raining parking lot (I literally dodged out of the way), I felt we had traveled enough that day. York, PA is just across the river from Lancaster, PA, but nevertheless, we were done for the day. Quality Inn.

Sunday, we arrive. We are staying with host families, very kind and generous ones, first in Mt. Joy and now in Lititz. Monday we were able to score a storage unit for our belongings while we are in Rwanda.

Monday evening, the U-Haul was returned. Did I fill the gas back to 1/2 tank?